What really happened one day at the lake in 1913?

On July 7, 1913, cottagers at Harveys Lake made a gruesome discovery: The body of a young woman, dressed in a way that plainly indicated this was no simple case of drowning while out for a swim.

This week marks the 100th anniversary of one of the Back Mountain's most notorious unsolved mysteries, one that made headlines around the nation: The murder - or, possibly, drowning - of 19-year-old Alice Crispell.

Alice's father William Crispell was a prosperous farmer in Lake Township; her family was an old and respectable one with deep roots in the region.

William Crispell was a devout Christian who didn't approve of what he considered his daughter's "waywardness."

Alice enjoyed helping with social events at her church, and also liked going to Harveys Lake, which was only about three miles from her family's farm, and to Wilkes-Barre (which was much more bustling of a city 100 years ago).

One of Alice's particular friends was a young worker at the Delaware and Hudson coal mine, Herbert "Bert" Johns of Wilkes-Barre.

Alice and Herbert had been keeping company for about two years. They discussed marriage, but hadn't made any definite plans. The couple went out fairly frequently, often to cafes and hotels. "I'm temperate - between drinks - and so are you," Herbert teased Alice in one of the numerous letters they exchanged.

July 4 fell on a Friday in 1913. Herbert and Alice spent the day at Harveys Lake, which was a hugely popular resort at that time. In the evening, they went to the Oneonta Hotel to hang out with friends. One of these, William Aisher, stated that Alice "had a few drinks and was slightly ill after drinking a lemon and seltzer," according to the New Oxford (PA) Item.

But the New York Times quotes Aisher as saying that it was Herbert who said he was ill, and that Alice "remarked she never felt better in her life."

Aisher "heard Alice coax Johns to accompany her home, promising to get a place for him to stay with a relative," the Item states.

However, on leaving the Oneonta, Herbert strolled with Alice for about a quarter of a mile before he left her to walk the rest of the three miles of dark, lonely country road to her house alone.

"Alice, I'm sick. You had better try to catch up with Stella. I had better go home," he reportedly told her, referring to a friend they had passed a short time previously.

And so they parted, at around 11:30 p.m.

Alice was never seen alive again. Three days later, her body surfaced in the lake, near the Weckesser boathouse. There were no indications of violence or a struggle.

The case drew widespread attention. There was initial speculation it could be a situation similar to the 1906 murder of Grace Brown by Chester Gillette, who wanted to marry another girl. (That was the inspiration for Theodore Dreiser's 1925 novel "An American Tragedy" - which in turn would make a later Harveys Lake case, the July 30, 1934 slaying of Freda McKechnie by Robert Allan Edwards, nationally notorious.)

But the Crispell case turned out to be nothing like the Brown homicide. Alice Crispell wasn't pregnant, and Herbert Johns didn't have another girlfriend.

In fact, authorities weren't even 100 percent sure it was murder.

So what really did happen to Alice Crispell? More next week.

Elizabeth Skrapits writes about the Back Mountain. She can be reached at eskrapits@citizensvoice.com.

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